In-situ monitoring of growth and oxidation of ALD TiN layers followed by reduction in atomic hydrogen

TiN is a material, which is increasingly used in IC technology as a diffusion barrier, gate material, current conductor, and antireflective coating. In MEMS, TiN is used as a heater for micro hotplates. The important applications of TiN are based on its well-known high thermodynamic stability, high corrosion resistance, low friction constant, relatively low electrical resistivity, and high mechanical hardness. Thin and ultra-thin TiN layers, realized by ALD technique, attract growing attention due to its high quality and possibility to control layer thickness on nanometer scale. To provoke the use of such ALD TiN in novel electron devices and establish new routes to material and device fabrication, modification of TiN properties at elevated temperatures in chemically reactive ambient (e.g. oxidizing and reducing ambient such as thermal-oxidation furnaces, oxygen- and hydrogen-containing plasmas) needs to be investigated.